Ask Me No More
by MysteriousBreeze
Summary: Voldemort is becoming more powerful by the day, Hermione is corrupted by her own insecurities and his offer of love and glory. What will happen when she is assigned to assassinate Severus Snape? SS/HG R&R please
1. The Moon May Draw The Sea

Ask Me No More -kiki  
  
Disclaimer: I don't Harry Potter or the universe in which the characters live; I'm just borrowing them to portray an original plot. Also, the poem (an excerpt from 'Songs from the Princess') is by Alfred Lord Tennyson. ~~~~~  
  
Ask me no more: The moon may draw the sea; The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape; But O too fond, when have I answer'd thee?  
  
Ask me no more.  
  
~~~~~ 'How disturbingly funny...Hermione Granger, an assassin' she thought with malice.  
  
The world was indeed a dark place since Harry Potter died. The faith of the wizarding people had broken, and the ministry had broken along with it. There were few organizations still able to resist the influence of Lord Voldemort. Hogwarts was one of the largest still standing. Life had been least affected in this school as the barren wastelands of the acres surrounding echoed memories of things once living. Though many children were shielded from the horrors of the outside world, Hermione was not one of them. She had to face the death of Harry with bravery rather than with sadness. After all, it was her duty to maintain a strong will as Head Girl.  
  
She had to face the deep torture and insanity in his face. She alone had to watch him, his eyes empty with loneliness and pain. Hermione Granger had to help him, free him and end his misery... With tears in her eyes, she whispered the small words able to send him into peace.  
  
And after, there was nothing she could do but run. She couldn't trust even Dumbledore to understand. Nobody else saw what she had...except for Voldemort. He'd sent Harry into the pain, into the misery, and he knew what she had seen. Her sense was twisted, she knew only that Voldemort was able to understand her reasons.  
  
He welcomed and comforted her. In the long months leading to winter and break, she knew she could count on Voldemort...to give her knowledge and answers, to reward her with respect and recognition from her peers. She was nurtured and poisoned.  
She trudged from the forest, knees buried in the winter snow. Her recent meeting with a messenger from her Lord gave knowledge of her newest task. Hermione had but to assassinate Professor Severus Snape. An easy enough task it seemed, with her being head girl, trusted by all and with access to areas of the school at any time.  
  
She came into the entrance hall, clothes soaked through. Luckily, there were no people there to see her looking so unkempt. Head girls had to keep up appearances after all. Her shoes clicked quietly on the marble steps leading to her rooms.  
  
Winter took its toll on the castle and the people within. Even with most of the students gone, all the people left in the castle were uncharacteristically gloomy. All but one Severus Snape that is, his gloominess was a hundred percent authentic. He walked silently through the corridors leading into the Great Hall. Due to lack of students, there was one table assembled aside the Staff table. Hermione came down from her dormitory, fresh from a hot shower and a few quick-dry spells. She sat at the edge of the student's table, not wanting to be stuck inbetween people. Apparently, somebody else approaching the staff table felt the same way. To her right was an authentically gloomy Professor Snape finding his seat. Hermione hadn't the time to organize her tactics yet, and didn't know exactly what method she would use. With this puzzle boring down on her, she couldn't spare him a second glance.  
  
The two ate in silence against the noise, which enveloped the Great Hall. Severus stood up soon after, leaving for his dungeons with robes trailing behind him. Hermione couldn't help but watch him.in awe, not only of him, but of her task and of the consequences. She couldn't help but wonder if there would be understanding in the end.  
  
~~~  
  
She had time to think about her plans in her own room. She had few options...anything too obvious would lead to suspicion. Assassination was a tricky business indeed. She did still have her future as a student to think about after all. Hermione did not want her years of studying to be in vain, so she thought of subtle ways to murder her once despised professor.  
  
'A potion? Ah, he's nearly as suspicious as Moody...he wouldn't just drink something he didn't know who'd handled...perhaps love. Even great Severus Snape would fall at the hands of love. The greatest weapon.' She began to outline tactics in her head, not daring to put them out on paper, to make them true.  
  
Her plans memorized, she fell back on her bed and blew a kiss to the urn holding a year-dead Crookshanks. ~~~~  
  
Severus Snape lay on his bed, contemplating the beginning of the next year, marking the 2nd anniversary of his bitter parting with Voldemort.  
  
'There would be no happiness to the man who'd made the greatest sacrifices.' He thought to himself. This neither hurt nor surprised him. It was always the same. He was forced to live his mundane life as a professor where others died at war; bringing glory to themselves. He was hidden away in the deepest parts of that safe castle. 'In a cage...repressed..." and sleep pulled at him until he could no longer keep his eyes open.  
  
The next day came subtly; the sun had barely risen. If it were shining brightly, nobody in the castle would have been able to tell. The dark clouds covered anything that even remotely resembled sky.  
  
Hermione rolled on to her side, checking the time on her floating clock. Finding it early still, she woke slowly. With the morning came her morning rituals: The kiss blown to ashes, the cleansing and finally, the changing. Remembering her plans, she picked out simple yet attractive clothes, A slim fitting v-neck t-shirt with dark jeans and her cloak over it to fight the winter cold. She opened the door and simultaneously cast a warming spell on herself as the rush of cold air hit her from outside the room.  
  
Her shoes clicked at contact with the cold marble steps. Her rooms were separate from those of the dorms connected to the Gryffindor common room. She had rights to a special dorm with two rooms as Head Girl. Her room was opposite the Head Boy's, currently empty because he'd gone home for the winter. She noted this; it was to her advantage. The only people who'd ever come in this part of the castle were the head boy and girl; it would be easy to slip anybody by into her rooms.  
  
And then she thought of him; the actual person behind the object of her malice. She wondered what his life was like, the pain he'd gone through. The suffering he'd had to live while in service of Voldemort. She couldn't deny the pain that often accompanied her job. And her suffering was nothing compared to that of those who had to go out, to terrorize and create destruction. It was true, nobody could love Voldemort, only fear him. Only Hermione could understand the horror and the beauty of it. She was seduced. Her thoughts of Severus vanished as quickly as they had come. And again, she had only hate towards Severus in her mind. He'd die at her hands.and she would smile.  
  
~~~  
  
TBC, dja like it? ^_^ please read and review, I thrive off of it. Yep, I'm one of the poor fools who need validation for everything @.@...I suppose that's not something to be proud of. Well, reviews would be nice anyway. -kiki (yes I have an obsession with sadness @.@) 


	2. The Cloud May Take The Shape

Ask Me No More -kiki  
  
Disclaimer: read first chapter, you'll get it o.O  
  
~~~~~  
  
Severus Snape woke up to the soft music being played by his variation of an alarm clock. It didn't necessarily alarm him, but gently pulled him from his sleep. He showered and dressed automatically, so used to the pattern that he didn't even have to think of what he was doing. By the time he finished brushing his teeth, his face looked less tired, and he was able to walk without stumbling over his own feet.  
  
He finally came to look into the mirror. The image reflected was exactly what he saw every day- He repressed the urge to make faces at his twin. The fact that he had an urge to do so in the first place shocked him.  
  
He realized that there was enough time to brew several potions for Madam Pomfrey before breakfast. She was in low supply of Sneeze-be-gone and painkillers (Severus' painkillers were not to be taken lightly, a single drop would numb one's feet for hours.).  
  
Severus locked and warded his rooms, a ritual far from necessary, seeing as how he warded the hallway in front and the door in front of that. The door to his office was heavy; it opened slowly and creaked loudly. He was too busy casting an oiling spell on the hinges of the door to realize there was a person coming in his direction.  
  
Hermione was walking towards him. She'd been sent on an innocent task to obtain Madam Pomfrey's specified potions. 'Oh what the hell, I'll just kill two birds with one stone.'  
  
She came up to him, but he obviously didn't see her. He was concentrating on the door hinges. She thought this odd and (innocently, of course) leaned over his back.  
  
"Something wrong with the door?" It was barely above a whisper, but obviously tangible enough from where Severus was standing. He jerked his head in the direction where the sound had come and was very much surprised to see her face just inches away from his. He stood up quickly.  
  
"Is there something you need?" He said in a dismissive tone.  
  
"Oh, yes. Madam Pomfrey asked me to come down here to bring up some medicinal potions. Her Sneeze-be-Gone supply has go-"  
  
"I haven't yet made them. They'll be ready before breakfast. You can come back for them then." In no mood to deal with students during his vacation, his sentences were short and to the point. She ventured further.  
  
"Sir...the walk back to the infirmary takes a long time, and coming back for the potions right after I get there seems a bit arbitrary. May I wait here while you make them?" She scraped out as much innocence as possible from the corners of her mind.  
  
He honestly couldn't find a legitimate denial to her request. He sighed and opened the door wider so she could pass through. He followed her in and gave her a cold glare. "Just sit over there and don't touch anything."  
  
"Yes, sir." She said, feeling quite small in light of the magnitude of her mission. It might have been easy to use love against other males, but this one seemed quite out of reach. Hermione wasn't one to give up without a fight.  
  
She sat comfortably on an overstuffed sofa in his office. She was at a disadvantage, though, because Severus had gone into another room, probably his laboratory. She wouldn't be able to talk to him face to face, if at all.  
  
She sighed and resigned herself to a long wait. Jars of God-knows-what caught her eye. She read the titles; while some sounded particularly nasty, others intrigued her, such as liquefied unicorn horn.  
  
Severus' head whipped up as he heard a crash coming from his office. He removed his Sneeze-be-gone stained gloves (toxic at this point in the brewing process) and rushed to his office.  
  
Hermione was standing next to his desk, a pool of silverish liquid and broken glass by her feet. He knew immediately what substance she had dropped and why her eyes were glazed over like that.  
  
The effects of the liquidized unicorn horn if ingested or inhaled would immediately paralyze somebody. Luckily, it did not last as long as the basilisk's indirect stare, and was easily cured with the remedy of time. It would take only a few hours for the paralysis to wear off. She stared stupidly at him, through him. He growled angrily at the situation.  
  
Conjuring up a stretcher and putting her on it was easy enough, but how to take her to the infirmary without the whole staff seeing? He wasn't about to be accused of paralyzing Minerva's prized student. Suddenly remembering that he had an invisibility cloak in the bottom drawer of his desk, he went to fetch it-completely forgetting there was liquidized unicorn horn to be slipped on.  
  
He realized his mistake too late and fell into the puddle, face first and took a huge breath after the wind got knocked out of him. Unfortunately, he took a huge breath of Unicorn horn.  
  
The situation couldn't have looked more comical. Hermione lying on a stretcher on a couch with a stupid look on her face and Professor Snape lying face down on the floor.  
  
Hours passed and no one came.  
  
Hermione was first to wake; she'd taken a small whiff of the stuff whereas Severus got his lungs full of it. She didn't know what time it was or how long she'd been out, but from the looks of the embers left in the wake of the blazing fire she'd passed out to, it had been a few hours. She looked down at him.  
  
Without a second thought, she got up from her the stretcher and kneeled down to help him. 'Sleeping?' She thought to herself, but realized it must be the effects of the ingredients she'd sniffed. Ashamed at herself for her stupidity, she carefully levitated him to the waiting stretcher, all the while berating herself.  
  
Satisfied, she looked for a clock but found none. She came to realize that their might be a watch on his wrist, but upon laying her eyes on him, she realized that there was a chance to get over with this assassination business without having to complicate matters and arouse suspicion.  
  
And how would she escape?  
  
'The teachers can't just come in here and see a dead potions master on the floor...'  
  
But before she could even think about how to go about the assassination, she heard a small knock at the office door.  
  
"Severus? Severus, are you in there?" Hermione realized it was Madam Pomfrey, probably looking for her potions.  
  
After a short pause, Hermione found it in herself to answer. "Madam Pomfrey? I..There's something wrong!" She tried her best panic-stricken voice and opened the door.  
  
"Oh! ...Dear" was the only response as she witnessed Severus moving slightly, putting his hands to his head. Pomfrey moved ahead a few steps and performed a few charms directed towards his head.  
  
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" He said after a fifth prodding of her wand.  
  
Hermione stood in the doorway, wondering if Severus was conscious when she was pacing the room, seemingly beating her own head out. She hoped not, it would only lead to his suspicion of her, which was now her number one concern. Severus was first to speak, albeit frantically.  
  
"Fuck, get out of here!" and they just stared at him, appalled. "The potion, it's been unattended for hours...Leave before the fumes spread any further!" He said hurriedly. The two were then rushed out of the room. The door emitted a small 'click' and they realized he'd locked it.  
  
"Severus! Open this door at once!" Madam Pomfrey was banging on the door, "Come out here before you get hurt!"  
  
Hermione realized that the fumes of the unattended, partially completed Sneeze-be-gone potion were toxic, and that whoever inhaled enough of it would abruptly die a horrible death. The heart would start beating very fast and would eventually explode, like an over-exhausted horse.  
  
However horrible this was, she was hoping only one thing at the moment.  
  
'Let him die, please let him die,' was chanted over and over in her head. She shut her eyes tightly and leaned, crouched against the wall.  
She'd been forced to kill even after Harry's death. The unforgivables were not strangers to Hermione, and she cast them undeterred. But she never had to know who those people were; she never had to see their loss.  
  
Hermione knew the suffering he'd had to go through... And the loss of the people he most cared about. Voldemort told her everything.  
  
She knew Severus was a professor in the school with the help of Dumbledore. He would have been sent to Azkaban had he not been trusted by the headmaster. And of course, he could not leave the school grounds without fear of being killed by Voldemort's Death Eaters.  
  
She was torn between emotions. She wanted to kill him; she was driven by the years of taunting and verbal battering. Yet, she also felt sorry for him. Hermione's mind kept telling her that she would be able to help him.  
  
And then there was that persistent thought that always intruded her mind.  
  
'I will be happy when he is gone.'  
  
How could she feel remorseful with this 'fact' bearing down on her?  
  
As always, she was returned to her previous state of mind. Loathing him and blessing him for being the thing she could always count on to hate.  
And suddenly, the door opened and Severus quickly came out shutting the door behind him. He looked at his watch and let out a big sigh.  
  
"Severus, are you alright?" Madam Pomfrey asked frantically. She was nearly flying around him, checking for injury.  
  
"If I were poisoned by the fumes, Poppy, I'd already be dead. Now please, stop that incessant twittering!" He was extremely aggravated at this point. He looked up to Hermione. "I told you not to touch anything!" he roared at her.  
  
"I-I'm sorry" she stuttered, trying to sound as timid as possible, but she knew he would see right through it.  
  
Madam Pomfrey tutted and said quietly, "Severus, this is the last thing she needs right now. Ms. Granger is coming to the infirmary, she could have gotten sick from all those fumes."  
  
She finished the sentence, however, with a condescending snort from Severus. 'The fumes would have killed her by now. If she's alive, she's fine.' He considered actually saying this, but thought better of it. Disapproving glares would have followed him through life. He opted for rudely walking in front of the pair and climbing the stairs in an unnecessary hurry.  
  
He walked aimlessly for a few minutes, in a general bad mood, when he came upon the library doors. Seeing as how the know-it-all Gryffindor was in the infirmary, he had a chance to catch up on his reading while waiting for his laboratory to air out.  
  
Luckily, there was nobody in the library at the time. He was able to read in peace. He picked out a few books that looked interesting and ended up staying in the corner of that room until the late afternoon.  
  
Hermione was dragged into the infirmary by madam Pomfrey. Despite Pomfrey's worry, the examination was short, because she couldn't find anything wrong with her patient. Hermione noted that she looked a bit disappointed at this, and wondered if winter's lack of injured students had some effect on the woman. That was a curious thought.  
  
She was out! Finally, a chance to be productive in this forsaken winter! She walked about the castle, looking for Snape in order to 'apologize'. The first place she visited was the dungeons. She didn't go into his office or laboratory, of course. She would probably die. She went to visit his classroom; he might have gone in there to remain peacefully exiled from the rest of humanity.  
  
There was no sign of Snape, though she did find a few intriguing books on the history of alchemists. She looked around and saw no sign of Snape or anybody else, and was content with this. She sat in a student's desk and began reading.  
  
Severus realized it was getting late and that he should probably check on his laboratory to see if it had finished airing out. He walked through the castle slowly, taking his time and watching the paintings as he so rarely did. One of which actually said hello and waved to him. That was a rare occurrence, as he usually glared at anything and everything that crossed his path. He finally got to the lower regions of the castle and began to descend the stairs leading to his office. Something caught his eye, though, and he began to walk to the light emitting from his school term classroom.  
  
To be sure nobody would get away should they be caught red handed stealing from his private stores, he removed his wand from his cloak and carefully nudged the door to his classroom open.  
  
The sight he saw numbed him...and angered him beyond reason.  
  
"Ms. Granger! What are you doing in here?" He said, realizing he'd almost hexed her.  
  
"Sn..Professor Snape! Oh.." She decided it better not to say anything after that, as it would only make the situation worse.  
  
His first instinct was to assign her a few detentions, but considering the fact that it was during Winter Break, the concept of a detention would be unreasonable. "What are you doing here?" he repeated.  
  
"I..I was wondering if you were alright...and decided to wait for you to come back." She really was pouring on the 'sweet' and she wondered if it was a bit much. He merely glared at her.  
  
"That, Miss Granger, is none of your business. However, the bottle of liquefied unicorn horn that you shattered is not easily replaceable."  
  
"uhm.." she stuttered, "I could.. I can try to find it for you."  
  
"That is unnecessary, Miss Granger. For the trouble I will have to go through in order to replace that particular substance, I'll take 30 points from Gryffindor. Now, I expect you must be getting back to your room," he said, checking the clock on the classroom wall, "It's nearly 11 now, past curfew if I'm not mistaken. That'll be another twenty points, and a detention with Filch the night after Winter break is over, at eight." He said all this while flipping through a book he'd brought back with him from the library.  
  
She didn't say anything; she just stood there. He hadn't said anything particularly shocking, but she had no way to put her plan in to action at this point. He still treated her like a student, a stupid, naïve little girl. She felt it, too.  
  
"Well?" He said, interrupting her from her thoughts, "I trust you can find your way out, Miss Granger." His words bit at her, and she left before she did something truly stupid.  
  
When she got back to her dormitory, She began to pace her living room. 'Fuck! That just set me back a couple days.' She checked her calendar. She only had 14 days until the end of winter break, and that was her best time to plan anything big regarding her despised professor Snape.  
  
Hermione decided that she would need another way to solve this problem. She put on Harry's invisibility cloak and left the castle.  
  
Her walk towards the Forbidden Forest was hindered only by the blizzard that was at that point obstructing her view. She walked into a tree. Afterwards, she lit her wand to 'lumos' and walked at a slower pace. She found the necklace hanging on an old oak tree, nearly buried by the snow.  
  
Hermione took the necklace, and cast the spell to release its magic, enabling her to use it as a portkey.  
  
"Cat...I hadn't expected to see you so soon. Is everything going as planned?" He had an echoing voice.  
  
"Good evening, my lord." And Hermione knelt down with respect for her beloved Lord Voldemort. "I'm afraid there is some trouble."  
  
"Speak."  
  
"My lord, I've had a bit of trouble getting through to professor Snape. He doesn't seem to regard me as anything but his young student..." She sighed and knelt her head on his lap.  
  
He pet her head, as he would a true cat, and said quietly to her, "It is unfortunate that you pay such fickle attention to your future in their world, as it will not exist for much longer. However, you will be an asset to me and to our cause. For this reason, I will tolerate your cautiousness."  
  
She smiled up at him. "Thank you, my lord." He hushed her with a kiss on her forehead and released a smile that would be creepy beyond measure to anybody else.  
  
After some conversation and reassurement, he noticed her yawn. "Cat," he said while smoothing down her hair, "I think you're getting sleepy. Go back to that damned school and charm their asses off."  
  
She stared up at him, shocked at his lack of grace. He only got up and helped her to her feet. He really did treat her like his favorite daughter; she didn't mind.  
  
"I will see you again, Pet, at our next family meeting." He was speaking, of course, in regards to the closest of his Death Eaters.  
  
She once again kneeled to him, before she turned around and walked into her corner. She whispered the spell to her necklace and was immediately transported back into the chilling bite of the Forbidden Forest. She decided it best not to leave the necklace out in the woods. It might be buried in the snow by the next morning. She pocketed it and began her long, slow walk back to the castle.  
  
I *love* reviews! Review for me and I'll whip out another chapter soon ^^ Hey, you need incentive. Did you say you want a famous quote? Okay. "I can't promise I'll try, but I'll try to try." -Bart Simpson *teary eyes* Semper fi *salutes* Semper fi. *runs away with tears in her eyes* 


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